Andrea Kanas from Australian Hearing says lots of people in the country have at least some level of hearing loss.

"On average we know that in Australia today 60 per cent of people over 60 have a hearing loss, but they wait about 10 years before they do something about it," says Andrea.

The machine that tests your hearing is made up of a pair of headphones that lead into a small black box with some lights on it, and that's it.

Once the test starts there's a series of tones that require a response via a button which registers the reaction of the participant.

In some cases it's not because people are afraid or embarrassed of having a hearing test, it's because they simply don't know anything is changing.

"Usually family and friends will notice before the actual person will, and make comment 'oh you know they tell me all the time to do something about my hearing'," she says.

The test isn't invasive and usually takes around 10 minutes to complete but for some reason Andrea says people still aren't concerned about the state of their hearing.

"The hearing is like every other part of the body, and as we age unfortunately it doesn't work as well as it used to," she says.

Given that the ear is so complex in its operation there's a number of things that can cause differing levels of hearing loss.

"It could be as simple as having a wax blockage in your ear, in the outer part so it's stopping the sound getting through to the ear drum," she says.

Age also plays a large factor in loss of hearing but the number one issue is sustained loud noise that damages the structure of fine hairs within the ear.

"Once that happens, the signal or the sound that comes in is not moving those hair cells, they're not sending the signal up to the brain and therefore we're not getting all the information," says Andrea.